Just a couple of weeks ago, a new indie game by the name of Wildkeepers Rising joined the growing army of auto-shooters that are out there, desperately looking to be your next fix.
This one has actually been on my radar since I first tried the playtest late last year, and so this is a follow-up to see what kind of shape it’s in since it landed in Early Access.
What is Wildkeepers Rising all about, then?
There is a whole range of inspirations that have informed the core design elements of Wildkeepers Rising, but the unmistakable beating heart of the game is the Vampire Survivors-inspired auto-shooter gameplay.
You’re in a fantasy world, enemies are attacking from all around, and you’ve got a growing collection of abilities that can deal out damage to the oncoming horde. Dead enemies drop XP and other resources that you can spend to level up in the moment, and also progress your character in-between runs.
When summed up in those terms, it’s a pretty standard survivors-like. However, there are plenty of things that help Wildkeepers Rising stand out from the crowd.
So what about the Pokémon…
The big gameplay twist is the collection of monsters that you recruit during any given run. There are several to choose from, each with its own unique abilities, and you can have up to four with you at any given time, I think.
This pack of fantastical creatures follows you around during battle. Each one has its own level that increases as you play, and you can pick upgrades to enhance specific traits and make them more effective. Each one has a special attack, which becomes active every few seconds; a quick button press later, and they’re firing a stream of bullets or clearing out an area via a giant stomp.
Each new mission requires you to complete simple objectives that are dotted around the map, and you can also recruit new monsters to join you and help out as you explore. In fact, you’ll need to have a good group, because it’s not long before the screen fills up with enemies.
Levelling up requires you to grab XP from the floor. You’re given a choice of abilities to upgrade every few seconds, but this is probably the least interesting part of Wildkeepers Rising. This is because they’re usually just incremental bumps rather than new abilities, especially at first before you’ve unlocked some of the more powerful sigil abilities.
The aforementioned sigils are, in fact, the best way that you can upgrade yourself and your monstrous companions during a run. You regularly acquire items that confer special abilities, and these can be equipped to your character and your monsters. As you only have two slots each, after a while it becomes a case of moving the items around in your inventory to best complement your current build.
Looking good, feeling good
Another standout aspect is undoubtedly the visuals, which I quite liked. In particular, I think the art is really nice. Developer Lioncode Games has cited both Akira Toriyama and Jim Henson as inspirations, and you can really see that through the overall art style.
I think the grainy visual filter does a great job as well, and the enemy animations and environmental designs are also a cut above what you’ll normally find from games in the same space. All told, it looks great (which I expected after the studio’s last game, Mech Armada).
The combat is pretty decent, too. The enemies react to your attacks, which helps with the feeling of immersion and with your connection to the action. I would counter that by noting that the combat can also feel a bit simplistic early on, before eventually lurching the other way, because having a full entourage can make things feel too chaotic.
Overall, however, I’m pretty pleased with how Wildkeepers Rising is shaping up. The roadmap ahead teases more playable characters with their own abilities, new guardians, bosses, and an endless mode (see the graphic below for more details, or hit the Steam link). Lioncode Games is making a very interesting survivors-like here, but of course, the danger remains that it will get lost in the horde of other games that are out there trying similar things.
Wildkeepers Rising is out now on PC (Win). I played the game via access kindly provided by the developer and their PR buddies.
